A welcome step forward: Reflections on the Independent Water Commission’s final report
Published: 28 July 2025
By Mike Williamson, Managing Director – Water Division
The Independent Water Commission’s final report offers a sensible and timely step forward for the sector. It addresses many of the challenges we all grapple with and presents bold yet practical proposals that could help move the industry in a more consistent, transparent and accountable direction.
Three areas stood out to us: regulation, monitoring, and third-party assurance. Each is critical to improving – and in some cases restoring – trust and driving consistent standards.
Regulation: Simpler, smarter, more focused
The proposal to unite three regulatory bodies into a single integrated water regulator is a welcome and progressive step. It promises greater clarity, efficiency, and consistency. The current landscape is fragmented and difficult to navigate, not just for water companies, but for suppliers like us and customers too.
A unified regulator focused regionally on assets and the environment will make legislation easier to apply and enforce. From our perspective, this shift will help drive consistent standards and make it easier for the supply chain to deliver services efficiently. It’s good news for the work we do with water companies nationwide, and will lead to better outcomes for customers and the environment.
Regional planning: Local knowledge with national consistency
We also support the move toward regional planning authorities. We hear from every water company that there are unique environmental and infrastructure challenges across the UK, which ultimately makes national models harder to apply uniformly. But we mustn’t lose sight of the thematic similarities that run across the country.
The key is striking the right balance: empowering regional authorities to reflect local priorities while maintaining national oversight to ensure fairness and consistency. That’s where experience in the field really counts. We’ve worked in the Dales, Cornwall, and everywhere in between. Everyone finds their own environment difficult. The challenge is recognising those differences without letting them dilute national standards.
Monitoring and data: Accuracy is everything
We fully subscribe to the Commission’s recommendations on monitoring. We are evangelical about the need for more consistent data collection, particularly across wastewater assets. The lack of standardisation in sewer monitoring is a long-standing issue, and anything that drives millimetric accuracy (like MCERTS) and consistent standards, such as those in the storm overflows discharge reduction plan, is a step in the right direction.
Better data means better decisions. It allows water companies to respond more effectively to incidents and gives the public and media clearer insight into performance. Most importantly, it enables smarter investment planning based on real, actionable information.
Digitalisation and automation are essential, not optional. Real-time data improves response, planning and transparency. The Commission’s call for improved oversight and independent validation of monitoring data is one we wholeheartedly support.
Third-party assurance: Raising the bar
The current self-monitoring regime presents real challenges. We’ve seen first-hand how inconsistent it can be, which is why we welcome the push for mandatory third-party assurance.
Independent validation helps drive national standards and ensures everyone is held to the same level of scrutiny. It also offers a way to balance regional flexibility with national consistency. If assurance is done to a national standard, it can unify expectations across diverse geographies.
We’re proud of the quality of our work; having it independently assured only strengthens our position, and the sector’s credibility. We’ve seen how third-party assurance has driven improvement in the gas sector, and we believe it can do the same for water.
Looking ahead
This report is a strong start. It reflects many of the conversations we’ve had with customers and stakeholders. More analysis is needed to fully understand the impact of the recommendations, but we’ll be watching closely as they move toward implementation and water companies begin to turn the report into reality.
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